Installing Windows NT 4.0!

[Xeon]

Now, how do I install Windows NT 4.0?(my CD-ROM is a non-bootable CD-ROM)

Actually, the main problem is :

1) I've 2 hard drives.
2) One of these drives has Windows XP installed, and the other contains some useless folders and files etc.
3) When I boot into DOS-mode when the PC starts up, it seems to show only 1 drive : the one with Windows XP installed.
No matter what commands I type, the other drive doesn't seem to be detected or shown or listed!
4) In Windows mode, however, the second hard drive actually shows up!(in Windows Explorer)

And in this case, I wanna install NT 4.0 on my 2nd hard drive, but when I run the setup.exe on the CD-ROM manually, it keeps saying that NT 4.0 should not be installed on this current version of Windows.(which is XP)

Of course, the only way is to boot into the 2nd hard disk in DOS mode....but hey! NT 4.0 setup can't even run in DOS-mode!

Argh! This is crazy! Is there no way to install NT 4.0 on my 'vanishing' 2nd hard-drive?

And no...Virtual PC can't install NT 4.0 too, for some darn reason.(no NT boot disks)

Drats!

[Kdr Kane]

Run the command winnt32 /ox in Windows XP. That should allow you to make the three boot floppies you need. Make them.

Remove your first hard drive from the system. Setup the second hard drive to be master/single with the jumpers. (It should have been slave in your original configuration.

Boot up off of the NT Boot floppies and install NT on the hard drive (new master). You must install the latest service pack SP6a on this NT installation to work with Windows XP. Do it now. Make note of the hidden file c:\boot.ini. Print it or write down the info contained in it.

Once NT is installed, then you're going to put your original master hard drive back into the computer. Set the drive with NT on it to be the slave again.

Now, XP should boot up fine. You'll have to edit the boot.ini file to allow the option to boot the NT drive. If it isn't obvious how to edit the file, post back what you had in the NT install and we can tell you how to fix XP for dual boot.

[Xeon]

Thanks a lot, Kdr Kane! I'll try this out!

[EDIT]
By the way, Kdr Kane...where do I type this 'winnt32 /ox' thingy?

I opened the Command Prompt ultility in Windows XP and type this thing and it says :

'winnt32' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Thanks a lot!

[Kdr Kane]

You will run the command D:\I386\WINNT32.EXE /ox on Windows NT systems.

However, I did some testing. You won't be able to execute this under Windows XP. So, it going to be necessary for you to run the command from a DOS or Win 9x machine or boot disk. In that case, the executable changes. On 16-bit systems, you need to run D:\I386\WINNT.EXE /ox. Where the D: drive is your CD drive.

[Xeon]

Hi there Kdr Kane!

Well, I was thinking of partitioning my first hard disk(the one with Windows XP already installed) and give 1 GB to this partition.

Then, I'll use the start-up disk and go into this partition(drive) and install Windows NT 4.0 from there.

Is there any potential problem here, Kdr Kane?

Thanks a lot!
Xeon.

[Krishnaa]

Xeon do you anything imp. on XP drive ??? , Which driver contains XP 1st partition or second ??

Whats anather OS , if any ??? ... If only one ..then forget about the WinNT 4...., you must copy you data to somewhere then format the driver using BOOT DISK , format it to FAT16 for WinNT , and then start installation from CD , by booting PC from Boot Disk.

[Xeon]

From Krishnaa:

Xeon do you anything imp. on XP drive ??? , Which driver contains XP 1st partition or second ??
Whats anather OS , if any ??? ... If only one ..then forget about the WinNT 4...., you must copy you data to somewhere then format the driver using BOOT DISK , format it to FAT16 for WinNT , and then start installation from CD , by booting PC from Boot Disk.

Nah, Krishnaa! I'm gonna pull up my pants and wear my shirt and give up. This is crazy! I mean, this is not the best time to install NT 4.0. By the time I managed to succeed in installing NT 4.0, I would already have turned 20 years old or older.

I've spent days and zillions of hours these few days trying to install NT 4.0 on Virtual PC.
It fails, cos' some files needed by the installation were missing.

Thus, I tried another method : install Windows 2000(successful) and then NT 4.0. Nothing work.

I also tried creating 3 boot disks(created them for about 5 times altogether) and tried installing from DOS. Sadly, before the installation starts, the setup told me it can't detect the hard drive or something and all that crap.

I've also tried System Commander 7.03 to partition the darn main hard drive(with Windows XP) into another section. In the end, it's taking a whale of a time and I can swear I saw Jesus smiling at me from above and it also seems that He|| was opening to take me in cos' I'm wasting too much time and that's a total sin. Plus, even if I waited, chances of success are slim.

So, I undo the partition and got back into the user-friendly Windows XP OS. System Commander was scary, so I uninstall it.
And now guess what? My second hard drive is missing from Windows Explorer and My Computer!!!

It just doesn't show up! Luckily I didn't put any important data in this 2nd hard drive or you folks would see me in the Dead People section of the local newspaper.
This is probably as good as losing a hard drive!

So, I'm gonna give up, cos' if there's any more errors and quirks and such, my entire XP is gonna be gone too and I probably need another 52 years to install it.

Thus, I give up! Nveer mind. Thanks a lot, guys! See you!
Xeon.

[Kdr Kane]

You should give VMWare a shot versus VirtualPC then.

VirtualPC uses a lot of pass through interfaces. VMWare does more actual emulation. It sounds like the pass through virtuality is causing the problem because some of your system devices are virtualized, but not emulated. And Windows NT doesn't support those devices.

[mwilliamson]

To install any NT OS from DOS you must run WINNT.EXE in the i386 directory. Make sure you have loaded smart drive before, or it will be insanely slow. If you have an add-in (read: non-intel) harddisk controller, you will most likely need a driver diskette for it to install NT. Via chipsets are supported by NT5+, but not by NT4, so get your driver disk. Press F6 when you are prompted to.

On a side note, why are you running your Windows XP on FAT32? It is outdated, slow and insecure. You should convert your drive to NTFS as soon as possible.

[Xeon]

To Kane:
Actually, after using Virtual PC for sometime, I'm beginning to feel it really sucks big-time.

The execution of programs on Virtual PC really is darn slow.
Although it's emulated, there's no reason why it's slow to such a crazy extent.
And the worse problem of all is the .vhd files.

For some of you who have used Virtual PC before, you would know that the .vhd files actually grow everytime u use Virtual PC and at this rate, even a 40 GB hard disk ain't enough.

Curse the fools!

To MWilliamson:
Thanks a lot, Mike! But....I don't have any hard disk driver or anything. Anyway, I'm going to burn NT at the bonfire tonight to punish it for it's countless atrocities, war crimes and sins.

[CBasicNet]

Pardon, I never read the whole thread.

Xeon, since you have 2 Harddisks, let's do this

Unplug the Harddisks from the motherboard. Set the unused HDisk from slave to master and plug it back, install your WinNT. After all your testing is done, format your HD and set it to slave again, plug the 2 Hdisks back, your WinXP is still intact.

[Xeon]

Thanks a lot, CBasicNet!

But I guess I'm going to get a professional to do it for me in future.
I don't even know which cable in master and which is slave, and if anything goes wrong and such,(according to Murphy's Law) I'll be a dead man.

[CBasicNet]

It has nothing got to do with cables, it is the jumper setting on the harddisks.

If you do get a professional to do it, watch and learn how he does it.

It is actually a very easy thing to do (/DIY a PC).

[Xeon]

Thanks, CBasicNet.
But....it's really inconvinient, though, especially since there's formatting involved. That means if a bug appears everytime...u get the idea.

But it's ok. I'll probably buy a 3rd cheap hard disk in the near future.